This is for putting 90-91 civic si seats into an 88-89 civic

As some of you may know this has been briefly covered in a few writeups but many of them have conflicting data.

For those who don't already know this, seats swaps are not a simple bolt-in affair for 88-91 civics/crx's. The frame rails changed depending on the year and model of the car. In other words you cannot take seats from a 91 civic si and bolt them into an 88 dx. The reason for this is the rails are much more narrow on the 88-89 civics when compared to the 90-91. The solution is a seat pan swap.

Since I don't have any pictures from my swap, I will provide the factory parts picture for reference below:
http://www.hondapartscheap.com/south...EAT&vinsrch=no
In the diagram about the parts are as follows:
#9,#22:Seat pans
#2,#15:Upper seat back assembly (the uppers stay intact minus the recliner swap)
#8,#21:Lower foam/fabric

Another great reference with pictures is listed in the link below.
Note:Follow fig 1-fig 12(do not remove the fabric from the lower foam as shown in fig13-fig16 because it's more work and you don't need to)
Also Figs 28-30 show the location of the hog rings to remove in order to do the recliner swap that is covered at the end
http://www.scribd.com/full/27861288?...cezhz0nr7i026q

A seat pan swap basically takes your exsisting seats metal base, and swaps over the lower foam and fabric from the other seats. The strange thing about this is that 88-89 pans have the seat mount on the opposite side as the 90-91. This means that when you are finished, the drivers side seat will be on the passenger side and visa versa. The seats look perfect but the recliner is on the wrong side. I'll explain how to fix this.

To start off with you must remove the plastics on the sides to access the bolts that hold the upper-back of the seat. On the side with the recliner there are two 12mm bolts. On the other side of the seat there is a large metric allen head bolt(the allen head is tough to break loose but if you use an allen head socket it's a piece of cake). Once these are out the top separates from the bottom. Set the tops aside and we will come back to them later to moddify the recliner.

On the lower section you may have to unbolt the rails on the bottom that are held into place with four 12mm bolts. Now with it upside down you need to remove the hog rings the connect the fabric to the metal. Using plyers be carful not to rip the fabric and try to save the hog rings if you can (some people replace with zipties which is kinda ghetto).
Once the hog rings are off, start at the back and slowly separate the foam from the metal pan. DO NOT REMOVE THE FABRIC FROM THE FOAM!!!. You can lift the corners of the fabric off the help remove the foam but don't remove all the way(big headache if you do)The foam will have some glue but if you go slow it should come off without damaging the foam. (note you don not have to re-glue)
On the 88-89 seat pans there is a recliner attached to the side with a 12mm bolt that you can get to with a wrench. SAVE THIS and the cable that runs undernieth!!!

Install the new seat foam and fabric in reverse order and make sure that the foam sit correctly all the way down. Reinstall the hog rings. On the 90-91 seat fabric you have to make a small hole for the 12mm bolt for the seat recliner...DO THIS you will thank me later.


One of the biggest problems people have when swapping 90-91 seat into an 88-89 is the recliner. Since the driverside seat is now in the passenger location, the recliner is on the inside of the seat instead of the outside. So many people give up here and say oh well or good enough...Don't be one of those people. Let me help you...

On the uppers that we set aside earlier, we are now going to swap the recliner bracket. This is tricky but doable. On the bottom of this back piece there are some more hog rings. Carefully remove them so that you can get to the back of the foam(do not remove the fabric yet) There are two springs that attach the front of the fabric to the backside of the foam. Remove these and we will now focus on the bracket to be replaced.
The side recliner bracket has two 14mm bolts. One is easy to get to and the other is hidden pretty bad. To get to the hidden one you must carefully pull the fabric off the side bulster foam and proceed to pull the foam back as far as you can. In some cases the foam may start to tear but a little bit is ok so long as you don't rip it apart. I used a deep socket 14mm as leverage to hold the foam at bay while on the bolt (in other words slip it in at an angle until you're on the bolt and pry the foam back. Install the 88-89 in reverse order onto the 90-91 backing and don't forget to reinstall the two small springs and hog rings. Now just reinstall the upper 90-91 and lower 88-89 pan together.
The 88-89 recliner lever has a cable that runs underneith and now can connect to the 88-89 recliner bracket that you just installed on your 90-91 uppers. Now you have the proper recliner to go with your new seats. The allen head bolt can be replaced by a spare
12mm bolt left over from the other seats. Reinstall the rails and you should be good to go.

Sorry for no pics but if I left anything out or you have any questions please feel free to ask here.

 

thank you very much for this write-up, op.

it was definitely a major help a couple weeks ago when i swapped my 90 civic Si seats in my 88 dx. the recliner swap definitely makes it cleaner and in timeline spec.

and sorry if i bumped an old thread. i just wanted to say thank you.

 

Glad I could help

 

Don't know if this will help anyone, but I have not seen anyone say this before.

I have both a 88 and 89 CRX SI. The seat rails and seat pans are different.

The 88 has shorter rails, and the seat belt is on the frame. Additionally, the bolt pattern from the rail to the seat pan is different.